Disclaimer: I own nothing, everything belongs to James Dashner.
When Thomas woke up, Minho was close enough he could practically feel his breathing. He turned his head to find Minho's face only inches from his, and Minho's hand was clinging onto Thomas's arm. They hadn't fallen asleep this way, they were at least a few feet away when they fell asleep, but Minho had rolled over his sleep and apparently grabbed onto Thomas at some point. Thomas was surprised he hadn't woken up when he did that, Thomas was normally so jumpy when he slept. But now, after three full nights of sleep he felt better than he had since he could remember. Literally.
Minho moaned quietly in his sleep and tightened his grip on Thomas's arm. Thomas couldn't help but smile, Minho looked almost... what is the word he was looking for? Adorable popped into his head. No. Not adorable. Friends don't find their friends adorable. I don't find boys adorable. Minho moaned again and smiled in his sleep. Adorable he thought. Stop!
Thomas contemplated how he could sneak out of Minho's grip without waking him up, and decided he was just going to have to wake him up. "Minho" he said. Minho's only response was a weird moaning noise. He took the arm that Minho wasn't holding onto and shook Minho's shoulder. Minho's eyes opened and stared straight into Thomas's. He immediately rolled onto his back so he wasn't so close to Thomas. It was another moment before he realized he was holding onto Thomas, so he removed his hand and grabbed it with his other hand.
"Shuck sorry Thomas" he said as he rubbed his eyes. "Didn't mean to invade your space."
Thomas tried to act like it was no big deal. "It's fine" he said "I don't really care."
Minho sat up and stretched "did you sleep well at least?" he said "I didn't wake you up did I?"
"Nah" Thomas said "I slept fine."
"Good that" Minho said as he stood up. "Are you going to lie there all shucking day?"
Thomas groaned and covered his face with his hands. "Yes" he said.
Minho laughed "get up you dumb shank there's work to be done." He stuck his hand out. Thomas grabbed Minho's hand and got up. Minho patted Thomas's back and said nonchalantly "I wish we could stay here all day" and started to walk off towards camp.
Thomas stared for a moment as Minho walked off. How does he act so casually when he does stuff like that? he thought. Because we're friends his mind answered him. Friends. Friends, friends, friends. He told himself over and over again as he forced himself to follow Minho back to camp.
Minho and Thomas were assigned to go gather berries from the woods for the day. Minho wasn't happy about it. He wasn't used to having adults around who could order him around. Minho was used to being the leader, not being lead. As they wandered Minho mumbled and complained "shucking shuckface tellin' me to go collect berries. I used to run the shucking maze every day and now I'm collecting berries."
"I know" Thomas said "but we gotta go where we're needed. What was that klunk Newt was always saying? Order or something like that."
"Order. Yea." Minho groaned loudly "shuck this, you're right. Newt used to drive me crazy with that order klunk. I never wanted to follow the rules at the beginning, you would know about that right Thomas?"
Thomas smiled "I have no idea what you're talking about."
Minho laughed "yea, sure." Minho looked at him for a moment before the smile disappeared from his face and he stared at the ground.
"Uh- sorry. For bringing up Newt" Thomas said.
"Don't be sorry" Minho said "we can't ignore his existence. It's just... hard to talk about, ya know?"
"Yea," Thomas said "whenever someone says the word please, I have to try my hardest not to punch them. People are trying to be polite and I want to deck them."
Minho nodded. "I wish I could just think about him without..." his voice trailed off.
They were silent for a little while before Thomas spoke up. "Without wanting to chuck yourself off of that ledge we sleep on? Cuz... that's why I used to go there. Used to just sit there and... you know think about what would happen if..."
Minho stopped walking and grabbed Thomas by the shoulders and slammed him against a tree. "Stop" Minho practically yelled "stop right shucking now. Don't ever talk like that again. You're all I have left! You're it! You and me, that's it! You. Can't. Leave. Me!"
Minho was hysterical shouting at Thomas, his face only a few inches from Thomas's. Shuck, what am I doing? This is probably exactly what Newt sounded like before he tried to kill himself. This the worst possible thing I could have said to him. "I- I'm sorry" he stumbled.
The anger seemed to leak out of Minho, and his body slumped. He leaned his forehead against Thomas's shoulder. Thomas suspected he was trying to hide the fact that he was crying. Thomas felt his own eyes sting with tears. "I'm not going to try anything... It's okay..." he said as he wrapped his arms around Minho. He rubbed his hands in circles on Minho's back. "I'm- I'm sorry Minho. Me and you, we're going to be okay."
Minho lifted his face and wiped a tear from his face. "I'm sorry I acted like that... I just couldn't handle you talking about... I can't.."
"I shouldn't have said that. I'm not going to do anything I swear." Thomas said.
"Shuck man, I normally keep it together better than this" he said as he took a step back, Thomas let his hands fall to his side.
"Don't worry about it" Thomas said "we all go a little crazy sometimes."
Minho smiled weakly "lets get back to work."
Later that night after they'd returned to camp with all the berries they went to get dinner. They sat down with their food and Brenda walked over with a girl around their age that Thomas didn't know, but he recognized. "Hey guys" Brenda said "this is Sam. Sam, this is Thomas and Minho." Thomas forced a smile.
"You guys are the ones who got us out of that place, right?" she asked "I never got to thank you."
This time Thomas smiled for real. Minho perked up, he always liked when people treated him like a hero. "It was nothing" Minho said with a huge smile.
"Nothing?" she said "it was amazing! You guys fought those monsters and got us out before the building collapsed!"
Thomas remained quiet as Minho soaked up the compliments. Minho talked and talked about how "it was really no big deal" and how he'd "battled so many greivers by then." Thomas didn't contribute much, he didn't like talking about that night since it reminded him of Teresa. Thomas found himself once again staring at Minho as he talked.
Suddenly Minho clapped his hand onto Thomas's shoulder. "But this shank's the real leader" he said. Minho smiled at Thomas, and Thomas felt himself blush.
"Really?" she said "you just seem like such a natural leader, Minho." She stared at Minho, and Thomas realized what was going on. This girl likes Minho, doesn't she? Thomas felt a ball of anger build in his chest. Minho continued to talk to her, either oblivious to her advances or enjoying them.
Thomas leaned over and whispered into Brenda's ear. "What is this girl doing?" he asked "she obviously doesn't know that Minho likes guys."
Brenda gave him a look and shrugged. Thomas glanced at Minho and Sam, neither of them had taken notice of their whispering. They were both too into their own conversation. Brenda leaned in and whispered "he might like girls too. I thought they'd be good for each other."
Thomas pulled away "so you did this on purpose?" he said a bit too loud before he could stop himself. Minho and the girl stopped talking to each other and stared at him. Thomas stared over at the two and realized Sam had put her hand on Minho's knee. The ball of anger grew in Thomas's chest. Shuck this. Thomas grabbed Minho's arm and stood up, pulling Minho with him.
"Shuck Thomas" he said "what's your problem?"
"It's time to go to sleep" he said "we'll see you guys tomorrow." He pulled Minho away towards the woods.
They only got a few feet into the woods when Minho shook his arm free from Thomas's grip. "Seriously slinthead what is your problem?" he asked.
"That girl was all over you!" he said "I was doing you a favor by getting you away from her."
"She was just being nice" Minho said.
"Yea, real shucking nice" Thomas mumbled. He walked quickly and remained silent until they got to the ledge where they spend their nights. Thomas lied down immediately and stared at the sky.
"Thomas," Minho said lying down next to him "are you alright?"
Thomas sighed and turned so he was facing Minho. "I'm fine" he said "I'm sorry. I know I've been acting weird lately."
"Shuck it Thomas you've been acting weird since the first day I met you" Minho said.
Thomas smiled "that's probably true" he said.
"Well that girl definitely won't be coming onto me anymore considering I was just dragged off into the woods to sleep with a guy" Minho said with a laugh.
"Uh- sorry" Thomas said.
"Don't be" Minho said "don't want a shucking girl anyways."
Thomas couldn't help but smile brightly. He turned his head and faced the sky. Soon enough he drifted to sleep.
Tominho are so adorable :) hope you guys liked this chapter! Please please please review! I appreciate any feedback!